July 18, 2014

A former Indonesian minister was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison on charges of graft related to the construction of a sports center in Hambalang in West Java.

Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, former minister of youth and sports, was named as a suspect in the case by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on December 7, 2012, and quit his post the following day.

He also resigned from his position as an adviser to the ruling Democratic Party.

“We decide that it has been proven that the defendant has violated the law,” presiding judge Haswandi said in court today in Jakarta. “We sentence him to four years in prison and order him to pay a fine of 200 million rupiah (about US$17,000). If the fine isn’t paid, it will be swapped for a two-month imprisonment.”

Haswandi said the defendant had received some $550,000 from the sports facility project, thereby flouting Article 3 of the 1999 Law on Eradication of Criminal Acts of Corruption, which bans using one’s position to gain a financial profit.

“You will be given seven days to think … to receive or to reject this verdict,” the judge said.

Mallarangeng claimed the verdict was unfair. “I will file an appeal,” he said.

The sentence was lighter than the prosecutors’ demand of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 300 million rupiah.

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